Hunter trains: There is a good service on the Central Coast and Newcastle line. There are trackworks which could cause delays on the Hunter line.

Monday 21 November 4.00am to Friday 25 November 7.30am - Buses replace trains between Scone and Maitland, and some trains between Telarah and Maitland.

Tuesday 22 November 7.30pm to Wednesday 23 November 4.30am - From 7.30pm until 4.30am, buses replace trains between Scone and Hamilton, and also between Telarah, Maitland and Hamilton then continue to Newcastle.

Hunter weather: Mostly sunny day with light winds in Newcastle (24 degrees), a sunny day with light winds in Raymond Terrace (24 degrees), sunny day with light afternoon winds in Maitland (28 degrees) and a sunny day with light winds in Scone (28 degrees).

Hunter beachwatch: The morning high tide will be the pick of the conditions for today.Light winds and cleaner waves at the southern facing beaches for the dawnpatrol.A large and powerful South Swell to develop at 2 to 3m. Light and variable winds before going S/E to N/E during the afternoon. First up check Merewether,Cliff,South Newcastle and Nobbys Reefs.Up at Port Stephens,Fingal and One Mile.To the South,Caves and South Catho.Tide going full for the late surf. Dangerous on rocks and poor swimming conditions.Listen to the lifeguards and only enter at patrolled beaches in flagged areas.Water temp 20C.

► NEWCASTLE’S Anglican Bishop Greg Thompson has told the Royal Commission he was sexually abused twice as a teenager. The bishop has previously said he was 19 when a bishop at the time, Ian Shevill, groomed him and tried to force him into sexual activity at the age of 19. More here.

► It is a haunting sight: so many empty, lifeless dresses. Individually they bear the name of one woman killed through violence in Australia this year. Collectively they send a powerful message that something drastically needs to be done to stop the loss. More here.

► HISTORIC Newcastle railway station will be reopened to the public for the first time since the last train rolled in two years ago. The state government will temporarily reopen the area on Friday afternoon, between 3pm and 8pm, and Saturday, between 10am and 3pm, so Novocastrians can refamiliarise themselves with the former terminus station before it is overhauled into something new. More here.

► NOSE-TO-TAIL crashes make up more than one third of all accidents on Hunter roads, according to new research by insurer AAMI. The research, an analysis of insurance claims over a year, found nose-to-tail collisions accounted for 30.95 per cent of vehicle accidents in the region. More here.

► KNIGHTS chairman Brian McGuigan says it remains to be seen if a proposed syndicate of local businessmen can raise the funds necessary to take over Newcastle’s struggling NRL franchise. More here.

► Newcastle City Council has taken steps towards the rezoning and sell-off of Waratah’s Wrightson Reserve, more than a decade after the controversial plan was first mooted. More here.

► FIFTY years ago Hexham swamp was a 2000 hectare garden of eden teeming with of fish, birds, lush vegetation. If it wasn’t for a few pesky mosquitoes and occasional tidal inundation problems it may well have stayed that way. More here.

► A plan to turn the land that harbours the NBN television studios into medium-density housing has cleared its first hurdle. More here.

► An armed bandit got more than he bargained for when he was pelted with bags of lollies during an attempted hold-up at Aberdare. The balaclava-clad robber copped the barrage after trying to enter the BP service station while brandishing a metal bar at about 5.45am Sunday. More here.

► On the eve of White Ribbon Day, the culmination of a global anti domestic violence movement, a Central Hunter police inspector revealed officers were visiting 20 domestic violence incidents in the Lower Hunter every day. More here.

► Four new varieties of potato and two garlic growers have joined Maitland's produce market. Shoppers flocked to the market in The Levee on Thursday to soak up the range of fresh produce. More here.

► POLICE have charged a man and two teenage boys with multiple offences after they were arrested in Lake Macquarie on Wednesday. About 8.20am, police from Lake Macquarie Local Area Command located a 22-year-old man at an address in Charlestown. More here.

► A local engineer has taken part in a global innovation program where she helped develop an idea for an app that would provide users with real-time information about major storm event impacts. More here.

► DOMESTIC violence related assault has decreased in the Port Stephens police command by 10 per cent according to a recent report, however the news doesn’t have senior police smiling just yet. More here.

► VOLUNTEER fire fighters will be officially thanked for their efforts to control November’s Lone Pine blaze. More here.

State of the Nation

Need a national news snapshot first thing – well, we have you covered.

► HUNTER, NSW: An armed bandit got more than he bargained for when he was pelted with bags of lollies during an attempted hold-up at Aberdare. The balaclava-clad robber copped the barrage after trying to enter the BP service station while brandishing a metal bar at about 5.45am Sunday. More here.

► BENDIGO, VIC: The state government has released a 10 year plan to end family violence. It promises to invest a further $218 million into social housing and private rental assistance, establish a network of support and safety hubs, and recruit new specialist family violence workers. More here.

► BALLARAT, VIC: When 13-year-old Emily Baker takes to the stage as Little Women’s Jo March next week, she will be following in a firmly established Ballarat tradition. Little Women is Miss Baker’s performance debut with Ballarat National Theatre. But her way to the stage was carved by her grandfather Bob Baker, who appeared in more than 50 shows with the community theatre group. More here.

► ALBURY-WODONGA: A FAMILY day care operator behind a multi-million-dollar government rip-off has maintained her innocence right to the very end. Melissa Higgins has been found guilty of a $3.6 million child care benefits rort despite consistently claiming she had done nothing wrong. More here.

► WAGGA WAGGA, NSW: IT WAS an innate sense of justice that would not allow Erwin Richter to sit on the sidelines and watch individuals or his city suffer when he could do something to help. “My long-held philosophy has been that if it is at all possible to make a difference for the better of just one person any effort on my part would be justified,” Mr Richter told The Daily Advertiser in 2010 after being told he had been made a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his contribution to the community. More here.

► ILLAWARRA, NSW: Thieves have forced the closure of Helensburgh’s only bank, with a brazen pre-dawn ram raid leaving the branch in ruins. Residents of Parkes Street were startled from their sleep about 2.20am Wednesday, as a Nissan Patrol smashed inside the Illawarra Credit Union. The car took out the shop front and connected with the street-facing ATM, pushing it over. More here.

►GOULBURN, NSW: A Goulburn district farmer given a suspended jail sentence on charges of aggravated cruelty to 31 of his sheep has accepted “full responsibility” for his actions. More here.

► ORANGE, NSW: Two weeks after the National Party was spectacularly swept from the Orange electorate, the party’s state leader John Barilaro returned to survey the damage. Mr Barilaro stepped in to replace Troy Grant following his resignation after the Orange byelection. More here.

► SUTHERLAND SHIRE, NSW: For the past 20 years, Cliff Jackson has caught the 478 bus from Ramsgate to Rockdale followed by the 400 bus from Rockdale to Enfield. He started this routine when he lost his sight in 1996. Mr Jackson, 91, from Monterey, volunteers at Vision Australia in Enfield four days a week. More here.

►TAMWORTH, NSW: The Deputy Prime Minister rubbished calls for a tax on sugary drinks, saying people should simply “stop eating so much and do a bit of exercise”. New England MP Barnaby Joyce and his National party colleagues dismissed the recommendation, but the idea has broad public support, including a local woman who gave up sugar for the health benefits. More here.

► LAUNCESTON, TAS: Ever thought about what an amazing life a child could lead if their sense of self-belief didn’t disappear? Angela Bertram has and it’s known as Where All Amazing Things Start. More here.

► GLOUCESTER, NSW: At least 30 current Essential Energy employees will be made redundant prior to Christmas. The move follows a Fair Work Commission determination in the long-running dispute over new Enterprise Agreement negotiations between the energy provider and the unions. More here.

► BURNIE, TAS: The controversial trawler, the Geelong Star, is no longer in Australian waters and is not set to return. The Australian Fisheries Management Authority confirmed on Tuesday that the freezer factory trawler, which had been operating in Australian waters since April 2015, was no longer in Australian jurisdiction. More here.

► CLEVELAND, QLD: FIRE brigade officers fought a major blaze in a highset, chamferboard house at Alexandra Hills on Thursday morning. Despite the best efforts of firefighters, much of the interior of the house in Sallows Street was burnt out. More here.

► MANDURAH, WA: Mandurah woman Carmen Carmody is livid after her attempt at a therapeutic and calming walk along Melros Beach this morning was squashed by the pong of exposed dog faeces being savaged by flies. More here.

► KATHERINE, NT: KATHERINE’s drinking water contains traces of the chemicals which have leached from the Tindal RAAF Base. The Northern Territory’s Department of Health is expected to announce confirmation of its test results tomorrow. More here.

► ESPERANCE, WA: Esperance Senior High School students have rallied behind their school chaplain to prevent his dismissal. Ready to make a stand against the decision to dump Mr Meadley, a group of students gathered 173 signatures when they walked around the school at recess and lunch time on Tuesday. More here.

► MURRAY VALLEY, SA: Always say ‘I love you’ – that is the mantra of the Kneebone family after they tragically lost their daughter and sister, Molly, in a car accident. On December 13, 2013, 18-year-old Molly Kneebone was killed in a single car accident on her way to her new adopted home. More here.

National news

► The reigning Premiers, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, will open the 2017 NRL season with a blockbuster match against the Brisbane Broncos. NRL boss Todd Greenberg announced the 2017 schedule on Thursday morning. More here.

► The new John Farnham? Get outta here. Where's the mullet? The artist known as Flume doesn't sing, doesn't dance and he wasn't even born when the first ARIA Awards were held. But Flume, or Harley Edward Streten as it says on his well thumbed passport, dominated the ARIA Awards on its 30th anniversary just as Farnham did on that first (non-televised, pre-social media, drinks flowing) night in 1987. More here.

► Below average rainfall, warmer days and increased bushfire threats can be expected across much of the nation for summer. Warmer days and nights are likely across eastern and northern Australia, with cooler days and nights more likely in Tasmania and south-west WA, the Bureau of Meteorology says. More here.

National weather radar

International news

► My oh my. What a bill. The cost of Brexit has been revealed in the first budget update released since the June 23 referendum - an expected £58.7 billion ($98.76 billion) hit over the forward estimates. More here.

► Mariah Carey would prefer to talk about diamonds, taking bubble baths at 4am and Christmas cheer and decor than her ex-fiance, James Packer. The singer was elusive when she spoke about the Australian billionaire with Ellen DeGeneres on Wednesday as she promoted new E! "docuseries" ("not reality TV show"), Mariah's World. More here.

On this day

1783 - During the Revolutionary War, the British evacuated New York. New York was their last military position in the U.S.

1952 - Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" opened in London.

1966 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience made its London performance debut at the Bag O' Nails Club.